North Korea Fires Missiles

By

Kyong-Ae Choi and

Alastair Gale

Updated May 19, 2013 10:09 p.m. ET

SEOUL—North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range missile into the sea off the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula following three similar launches Saturday, again stirring tensions that had appeared to ease after recent threats directed at South Korea and the U.S.

ENLARGE

South Koreans view North Korean territory at an observation post in Goseong, northeast of Seoul, on Sunday.
Reuters

Rising Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

Threats by North Korea against its southern neighbor have escalated, deteriorating fragile relations between Pyongyang and Seoul.

The latest missile firing came after the South Korean government on Sunday condemned Pyongyang's launches and urged the country to come to the negotiating table over the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex.

Operation of the Kaesong facility has been suspended since April 9 when North Korea pulled its workers out. South Korean companies that operated in Kaesong want to withdraw their raw materials and finished goods.

South Korea's defense ministry said North Korea fired three missiles into waters off the Korean peninsula on Saturday, followed by a fourth Sunday.

"In our judgment, the missiles are short-range guided missiles, not midrange missiles such as the Musudan," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. North Korea's short-range missiles have a reach of around 100 miles (160 kilometers). It remains unconfirmed what type of short-range missiles were fired.

The missiles posed no danger to neighboring countries. Analysts said the launches were likely intended as a protest against joint South Korean-U.S. naval drills last week. North Korea, a financially beleaguered state hit by fresh U.N. sanctions after its nuclear test in February, may expect the launches will prompt the offer of dialogue from the U.S., they said.

On Sunday, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon also asked the North to refrain from further missile tests, and the U.S. made a statement. "North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which only further isolate [North Korea] and undermine international efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council in the U.S. "We continue to urge the North Korean leadership to heed President Obama's call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations."

The firings came after Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea, visited Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul last week for talks on dealing with North Korea.

North Korea made no immediate statement on the launches.

Attention has been focused on the deployment of two Musudan missiles on North Korea's east coast last month for an expected test firing. Officials and media reports earlier this month said North Korea had moved the Musudan missiles away from the firing locations.

The Musudan has a range of nearly 2,500 miles, meaning it could threaten U.S. bases in the region, Guam and Japan. Tokyo put its missile defenses on alert in response to reports of the Musudan deployment.

North Korea launches smaller missiles with ranges of a few hundred miles, such as Scud variants, in test firings from its coasts a few times each year. The last reported firing was in March.

Shin Jong-dae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the launches were likely an effort to draw attention of the international community, particularly the U.S. "North Korea is an expert at crisis diplomacy, or crisis marketing," Mr. Shin said.

Pyongyang's actions, including threats of attack that escalated in recent months, are widely viewed as an attempt to generate enough fear to prompt other countries to consider concessions on security and aid, a gambit it has used repeatedly.

Those threats intensified during annual military drills held by South Korea and the U.S. through the end of April, which the North portrayed as a prelude to war. The heated rhetoric eased after the drills ended, but fresh naval exercises early last week prompted renewed warnings of counterattack from Pyongyang.

The latest drills were led by the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, a move North Korea's state media called "a grave military provocation."

The missile launches come during a low in relations between North Korea and South Korea as Pyongyang has rejected calls from Seoul for talks over their closed joint industrial complex. The closure of the Kaesong plant—the last outpost of inter-Korean economic cooperation— followed weeks of verbal attacks by North Korea against the South and the U.S. after the U.N. imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang after its third nuclear test in February.

The industrial park opened in late 2004, after the first inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000 between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. More than 120 South Korean firms employed about 53,000 North Koreans to make products such as shoes and bags.

"We urge North Korea to stop all military provocations such as the missile firing and to abide by the international guidelines when it comes to the protection of assets of companies [that invested in the Kaesong complex]," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Sunday.

Seoul said it was monitoring for any further military activity in the North following missile launches Saturday and Sunday. "South Korea's military is on high alert to prepare for any hostile acts from the North following the guided-missile launches today," defense ministry spokesman Mr. Kim said.

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